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Optimus B
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How Weird Is This?? At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic
Science, AAFS President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with
the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story. On March
23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded
that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr Opus had jumped from the
top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to
the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his
life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which
killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that
a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to
protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been
able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr
Mills continued, "A person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately
succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is
still defined as committing suicide." That Mr Opus was shot on the way to
certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the
safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on
his hands. In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast
emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing
vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset
that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the
pellets went through the window striking Mr Opus. When one intends to kill
subject"A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the
murder of subject "B." When confronted with the murder charge the old man
and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten
his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder
her.Therefore the killing of Mr Opus appeared to be an accident; that is,
if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation
turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about
six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had
cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of
his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the
expectation that his father would shoot his mother. Since the loader of
the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he
didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on
the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus. Now comes the exquisite
twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten
story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing
through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so
the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide. (A true story from
Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt)
Science, AAFS President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with
the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story. On March
23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded
that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr Opus had jumped from the
top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to
the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his
life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which
killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that
a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to
protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been
able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr
Mills continued, "A person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately
succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is
still defined as committing suicide." That Mr Opus was shot on the way to
certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the
safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on
his hands. In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast
emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing
vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset
that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the
pellets went through the window striking Mr Opus. When one intends to kill
subject"A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the
murder of subject "B." When confronted with the murder charge the old man
and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten
his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder
her.Therefore the killing of Mr Opus appeared to be an accident; that is,
if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation
turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about
six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had
cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of
his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the
expectation that his father would shoot his mother. Since the loader of
the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he
didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on
the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus. Now comes the exquisite
twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten
story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing
through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so
the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide. (A true story from
Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt)
